New Wheels

Not too very long after I posted the Happy Thanksgiving post we got a phone call from the chair place telling us that John's power chair would be here at 2pm. We had gotten a letter the week before telling us that it had been ordered and would be in within the next 4 weeks, so of course we didn't have any ramps built. Mark quickly built 3 ramps to get John's chair in the house and the adventure has been on ever since.

I was very impressed with John, he's only gotten to drive a power chair 3 times, and those were only chairs that were similar to this one, not exactly the same, and the last time that he had driven one was months and months ago. No more had his little bottom been planted in the seat than he reached over and turned it on and was ready to drive. The chair needed a few adjustments and you can see that he has a wrench in his hand and was helping.

An hour or so of adjustment making and a trip up the 3 new ramps that his daddy built and he was ready to terrorize, uh I mean, drive in the house. He is very good at this and is getting better each time he is in it, but that doesn't mean that he's exactly getting safe driving awards yet. We did realize that the chair was heavy enough and had enough torgue that we can't push it and it can certainly push many other things, but he's getting better and there hasn't been any permanent damage to chair, structures, pedestrians or pooches.

It is giving him the freedom that we hoped for and as he gets better at driving it that will only increase. Before the chair John would be playing computer, or something and get done and have to holler and fuss to get our attention to move him, with the chair he can come and get us and tell us that he's ready for something else to do, or even go and find that something else himself. He is still getting in his gait trainer and walking, and holding our hands and walking through the house, and scooting around too, but this adds a whole other dimension to his mobility.



And of course today was new haircut day for my favorite guys, so I could resist showing them off!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We find this year that we have many things to be thankful for...



...good friends.

John's godparents came to visit this month and what a great time we had. It was so nice to get to visit, to enjoy seeing how grown up our sweet goddaughter is now, and just be together for a while. John had a great time with the kids here and he was sad to see them leave. Somehow our house is just much quieter without the godcousins swirling around, with no trains in the kitchen and no little girls that like to play playdoh for hours and no little boys running hither and yon. We look forward to getting to go and see them, and whenever they get back this way, it's always fun to be together.



...a little boy who is doing great and getting bigger and better all the time.

We just got home from John's check-up in Omaha yesterday. I must say that even with the good news of his appointment the very best part of any trip to Nebraska is staying with the Baker's. We will be returning in a couple weeks just to hang out and play at their house for the weekend of John's birthday - he will be so excited, and so will we!

John's appointment news is very good. He has actually gained weight, about .25 kilos, not as much as anyone would like him to gain, but it's in the right direction and the docs/team have a plan to help him gain more. These kids are so much trial and error, but it's comforting to know that the experts have more ideas and listen to ours too. John's height portion of the growth chart is still nearly a straight line up since arriving in Omaha, he's now 38 inches tall, his weight on the other hand looks like a hook, having gone up and now sliding back down, hopefully it will turn more into a roller coaster soon! We are going to be trying prune juice to manage the constipation, as both they and we want him off the Miralax, the kid just doesn't need more drugs in his body if we can avoid them. At any rate John is doing so well that he doesn't have another appointment for 6 weeks and actually gets to have labs done every other week this time.

...a new life to celebrate and share.

We found out last week why I have been so tired that I can't manage to do much, including update the blog, I'm pregnant. It feels surreal to write that down and it mean me, Mark and I have been married for almost 14 years and never thought that we'd ever see a positive pregnancy test but last week the test went positive so fast I never even had a chance to set it down. We did find a high-risk pregnancy ob/gyn in Columbia, I'm 42 and overweight, our first appointment with the nurse is on Monday and then we see the doctor on the 17th of December. We are guessing that the baby should be due in early July, but are looking forward to the first ultrasound so that we can see if our guess is good or off. I never realized that my whole body would feel pregnant, I also never realized what tired really meant. We have told John that he is going to be a big brother, and I'm not sure just how much he gets it, his first reaction was 'baby play playdoh', can't wait until we can show him his new baby brother or sister. We are excited, shocked, amazed and most of all thankful that God has blessed us with this little life.